Phillies Offense Explodes in Eighth, Take Finale Over Braves 9-4

The Phillies entered Sunday afternoon’s finale against the Atlanta Braves in dire need of a victory. The Phillies were able to take a sigh of relief by blowing out the Braves on Sunday, 9-4. They still lost the series, and now with the series between Philly and Atlanta being over, the Phillies finished with a 4-9 record.

A major factor in the Phillies’ success Sunday was the grittiness of Andrew Painter. Painter was coming off a very bad start against the Houston Astros, allowing five runs and 10 hits over five innings. His issue in that start was that his command was just plain bad; he struggled to spot his pitches where he wanted them.

On Sunday afternoon, that was a lot better. Now it was not perfect; he let several fastballs get away, and a few breaking pitches went well outside the zone. What this led to was not a bad day; Painter was able to fight very well against his issues. The Braves lineup did not make it easy, extending at-bats to increase Painter’s pitch count and getting on base at a high frame. That’s where Painter battled; even after letting Braves hitters get on consistently throughout the day, he limited the damage.

His lone run allowed was in the bottom half of the first when he gave up a long sac fly to Drake Baldwin to give Atlanta an early 1-0 lead. He was able to get out of the inning unscathed after that and continued that style of gritty, hard, long-fought battles.

Painter battled through five innings, leaving eight Braves on base, a very impressive feat given how successful the Braves are at taking advantage of pitchers’ mistakes and issues. Painter’s best inning came in his last, a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half of the fifth. His day was done afterwards with a lead and momentum on the Phillies side thanks to his gritty work, finishing with a line of five innings, one run allowed on six hits and four walks, striking out three Braves in the process.

After Painter left the game, the score was 2-1 in favor of the Phillies. The offense had been in a similar position as the Braves, not struggling to get men, but laboring to actually score them. Several innings had multiple men on with outs to play with but then coming up empty in the inning. The Phillies’ lone run production was a J.T. Realmuto two-run blast in the second.

However, entering the top half of the eighth, the game was at a restart and momentum on the Braves side. Atlanta tied the game against Jose Alvarado in the bottom half of the seventh. The offense saw this and finally struck. A massive seven-run inning, batting around and just putting bat on ball for success.

The big inning began with a Kyle Schwarber walk. Afterwards, the Braves got two outs and allowed a Bryce Harper double to bring up Alec Bohm with two outs and two men in scoring position, the biggest at-bat of the game. Bohm took advantage of the opportunity, ripping a double into center that scored Schwarber and Harper, putting the Phillies on top 4-2.

The offense wasn’t done there. Adding five more runs before the inning closed. In the top half of the eighth, the Phillies sent 12 hitters to the plate, had eight hits, added a walk, and entered the bottom half of the inning with a 9-2 lead.

The game felt incapable of being lost after that, and it was. Tanner Banks came in to close out the final two innings, only blemish being a two-run garbage-time home run to Matt Olson. The Phillies salvaged the series 9-4 and are headed to Washington with an off day and some nice confidence.

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